How to ask for advice and give advice. (week 4)

What forms or expressions do we use to ask or to give advice? 

1. In the following text we find some examples that can give us an idea: 

"Paid cleaning help can be a wonderful short-cut to a clean and organized home--if the household budget can stand the cost. But what do you do if the Prize Patrol bypassed your door this year? I recommend you to take a speed-cleaning lesson from the pros! Paid cleaning services are masters of the art of speedy, efficient cleaning. You should watch professional cleaners at work: they don't waste time, cut corners or dawdle over the job--and they know how to clean fast, clean right.To speed cleaning chores in your organized home, I advice you take a tip from their copybook. Try these tips from professional cleaners."

2. Here, there is another text in which we can find several modal verbs:

"Xavier is an intelligent guy and he plans to go to medical school. He thinks he may get a better job when he graduates. At the moment, Xavier is working at a supermarket and he can't pay for his studies or buy books, so he should try to get into a public college. Xavier is the oldest child and he feels he must do something to help his younger brothers and sisters as he already noticed they will need his support. Xavier is brave, determined and doesn't complain about life because he knows that things could be worse than they are now."

The specific meaning of these modal verbs are:

a. May - probability

b. Can't - impossibility

c. Should - ability

d. Must - moral obligation 

e. Could - probability

3. In the last few weeks I'd done several acts in order to keep improving my English. Some of them which help me a lot are: 

a. Phoning my American family every week so that I can keep a conversation in English during an hour or so. This helps me a lot in order to improve my fluency in my second language. 

b. Reading books and articles. Every week I've several articles to read due to college homework. Reading provides me with new vocabulary which I can use to improve my academic skills. 

c. Traveling to a foreign country. Last weekend I went to Ireland and I practiced my oral skills for at least 4 days. Irish accent sometimes is so difficult to understand so this way I can get used to different accents in English and therefore, improving my listening skills. 

d. Watching TV shows. I don't have too much time to watch TV shows but I can watch them every other weekend at least. Normally I add Spanish/English subtitles in order to understand fully what characters are saying. In my opinion, I find Spanish subtitles more helpful due to I can see the translation of any word. 

e. Studying English grammar. From time to time I write lists of phrasal verbs, expressions or word formation in order to acquire a more specific code in the English language. 

Have a good weekend!